Former Meta workers launch Sandbar, a sensible ring that takes voice notes and controls music

A raft of voice-based {hardware} gadgets have emerged, geared toward companionship, productiveness, or private progress. These embrace card-shaped gadgets from Plaud and Pocket; pendants from Buddy, Limitless, and Taya; and a wristband from Bee, which is now a part of Amazon.

Now, two former Meta workers who labored on interface design have launched Sandbar, a startup that has created a hoop referred to as Stream for related functions. The corporate calls the ring “a mouse for voice” as a result of it will probably take notes, enable you to work together with an AI assistant, and likewise allow you to management music.

Sandbar’s CEO, Mina Fahmi, has an intensive background in designing human-computer interfaces. He labored at Bryan Johnson’s Kernel and later at sensible glasses startup Magic Leap. Kirak Hong, Sandbar’s CTO, labored at Google earlier than becoming a member of CTRL-Labs, the place the duo met. Meta acquired the startup in 2019, and its work ultimately led to neural interfaces for the tech big’s sensible wearables.

Fahmi mentioned that when giant language fashions began rising a number of years in the past, he constructed an experimental journaling app. Nonetheless, he discovered that the app itself turned a barrier to capturing his ideas. Given his expertise constructing {hardware} interfaces, he started exploring a conversational {hardware} interface as an alternative.

“Quite a lot of my concepts bubble up after I’m strolling or after I’m commuting, and I don’t need to pull out my telephone to interrupt that second. I don’t need to shout into my earbuds the place the world can hear me to speak by an concept. Kirak and I had been making an attempt to grasp what it might take to really seize a thought the second it bubbles up. That’s how we got here up with Stream,” Fahmi informed TechCrunch in an interview.

The ring, designed to be worn in your dominant hand’s index finger, has microphones and a contact pad.

In a digital demo, Fahmi wore the Stream ring on his index finger and recorded his ideas by urgent and holding the touchpad. By default, the microphone is off, activating solely with this gesture. The microphone proved delicate sufficient to select up whispers and transcribe them within the companion iOS app. Different apps like Wispr Circulation and Willow equally enable individuals to seize their ideas quietly.

Stream’s app consists of an AI chatbot that converses with you as you document your ideas. You’ll be able to manage these into separate notes that both you or the AI can edit. The app additionally enables you to pinch to zoom out and evaluate what you have got mentioned over days or even weeks. Sandbar has added a personalization layer so the assistant’s voice sounds considerably just like the person’s.

Fahmi mentioned that in crowded areas, customers can put on headphones to converse privately with the assistant. With out headphones, the ring offers haptic suggestions when it efficiently registers a be aware, permitting you so as to add to-dos, take notes, or examine gadgets off a grocery checklist quietly.

Past voice capabilities, the ring’s flat floor doubles as a media controller, permitting you to play, pause, skip tracks and modify quantity. Whereas many headphones supply related controls, the ring may show helpful when your palms are occupied otherwise you’re in transit.

The corporate is opening up pre-orders for Stream on Wednesday at $249 for the silver model and $299 for gold. Sandbar goals to start delivery subsequent summer season. A Professional subscription tier — free for 3 months for individuals who preorder, then $10 per 30 days — presents limitless chats, notes, and early entry to new options.

Fahmi mentioned the corporate offers customers full management over their knowledge at any tier, with encryption each at relaxation and in transit. He added that Sandbar doesn’t imagine in walled gardens and plans to help knowledge exports to apps like Notion.

Sandbar has raised $13 million in funding from True Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Betaworks.

Toni Schneider, a associate at True Ventures, mentioned he had been skeptical of AI gadgets, as demos he’d seen earlier than Stream weren’t spectacular.

“I feel lots of people would agree that voice and AI go very well collectively. And [they also agree] that having a telephone or perhaps a laptop computer to work together with AI is type of lots when all you want is voice. So there must be some type of new type issue on the market. We checked out lots of them, and lots of them simply didn’t fairly hit the goal. When Mina got here in and confirmed us the demo, it made sense to us,” he informed TechCrunch.

Competitors is fierce within the voice-AI {hardware} area, with many builders exploring rings as a type issue. Fahmi mentioned he doesn’t need Stream to be an assistant or a companion, however quite an interface for customers to precise their concepts whereas sustaining full management.

AI {hardware} has but to realize mainstream success. Humane bought to HP, Rabbit is trying to enhance person expertise and engagement by software program updates, and Buddy is making an attempt to leverage person backlash to gasoline progress. Sandbar might want to show that its ring type issue presents real comfort and worth that pendants, pins, or wristbands can’t.